


Nerding Out

by Monsterunderkilt



Series: The Manse [50]
Category: Actor RPF, Celebrities - Fandom, RPF - Fandom, Real Person Fanfic - Fandom, Real Person Fiction, Shakespeare - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:22:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29547888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Monsterunderkilt/pseuds/Monsterunderkilt
Summary: The usual night in spent watching college lectures and quoting The Bard...This time it’s from “Henry IV, Part One”
Series: The Manse [50]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1209447
Kudos: 1





	Nerding Out

In the middle of watching one of my Great Courses videos in the living room, I hear the front door open and shut. A few moments later, Joliver sneaks through the hallway and waves at me awkwardly.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt—”

I pause the program and wave him over. “Come, join me. I’m all alone this evening for some reason.”

Joliver scampers over and sits down with me. He bounces up and down on the cushion a few times, smiling as he stares at the screen. “What are we watching? A Marvel film?”

I snort. “A lecture on the Neoclassicism and Romanticism eras of fine arts.”

“ _Wow_ ,” he says flatly. “And I thought _I_ was a nerd.”

I laugh and give him a tight hug. “Let us nerd out together, then.”

Joliver gives me a quick kiss on my cheek and holds my hand. “Where is everybody tonight?”

“They’re all at work. Or they’re just tired of me from all the Valentines festivities.”

He shakes his head gravely. “If they’ve bailed on you, Madam, I’d be happy to take their place.”

“Awe, John, you’re sweet.”

“So what’s the tea?” he asks. “What’s it like being married to a Sir anyway?”

“Oh well, you know we quote Shakespeare at each other in bed all the time.”

“Seriously? Is that a requirement?”

“Yes. Sir won’t let me fall asleep until I’ve done a few recitations.”

Joliver scrunches his face. “A tad pretentious, that.”

I wink at him. “I ordered him to do it. To keep me sharp.”

“Oh,” he says, shrugging. “That’s as it should be, then. What is he good for if not Shakespeare coaching?”

“He’s a fine director.”

“Just how many directors am I competing with around here?”

We both look over to see Sir enter the room, still taking off his winter coat and scarf. He holds out his hands and shrugs.

“Ken, we were talking about you,” I say. “You’re competing with yourself.”

He jabs a thumb over his shoulder. “Yeah, well, Jon is a director as well, and I very nearly regret inviting Pedro over—”

“Ken, please, I have lots of favorite directors but I’m not married to all of them.”

“Do you direct as well?” Ken asks, pointing at Joliver.

“No, no, no, I’m merely a well-paid clown.”

“Kenneth... what exactly has taken the jam out of your doughnut today?” I ask, reaching over the back of the sofa to squeeze his hand.

Ken brings my hand to his lips and kisses my knuckles. “I’m sorry, love, it’s just been... one thing after another with this Agatha Christie film. I wonder if it’s not meant to be.”

“Did you stumble upon an Egyptian curse while filming by any chance?” Joliver asks.

I frown and climb over the sofa to hug Ken. He envelops me in his arms and kisses my hair as I eye Joliver.“It was filmed in Morocco,” I say.

Joliver nods. “I’ll just shut up now.”

Looking up at my husband with hope, I say “Perhaps, in the end, it may be more wond’red at by breaking through the foul and ugly mists of vapours that did seem to strangle it.”

That cracks a smile out of him. “ _Nothing pleaseth but rare acciden_ ts.”

“ _So when this loose behavior I throw off and pay the debt I never promised..._ ”

_“By how much better than my word I am, by so much shall I falsify men’s hopes—_ ”

“Whoa whoa whoa, it’s clearly getting balmy in here,” Joliver says, waving his hand and standing up. “I think I better leave you to your bedtime rituals.”

“John, wait.”

He freezes mid-stride and turns his head, cocking his ear in my direction. “Yes, Madam?”

I smile and blow him a kiss. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“Likewise, Madam,” he says with a little bow of his head. He salutes. “Goodnight, mum, Sir.”

As soon as Joliver leaves us, Ken winks at me and reaches down to gently squeeze my bum. “You scared him off with your erudition, darling.”

“Pfft, everyone’s just sick of us soliloquizing all the time. We can sometimes be incorrigible bores.”

“Well, it’s their loss if they don’t appreciate all the fun.”

My turn to cup his arse. “And like bright metal on a sullen ground,” I recite, raising myself up on my tiptoes ever closer to him with every word uttered. “ _My reformation, glitt’ring o’er my fault_ —”

Ken’s eyes narrow seductively as he lifts my chin up toward him. “ _Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes—_ ”

“ _Than that which hath no foil to set it off,_ ” I barely whisper before we crush our lips together and shut ourselves up.


End file.
